Daniel Darling announced on Monday, October 25, 2021 that he will join the SBC as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s (SBTS) director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement and Texas Baptist College as an assistant professor of faith and culture.
Darling’s Departure from NRB
Darling was previously dismissed as the senior vice president of communications for the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), an international association of evangelical communicators that reach over 140 million Americans every month, for promoting the COVID-19 vaccine during MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and in an op-ed for USA Today.
Darling, the pastor of teaching and discipleship at Green Hill Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, told Joe Scarborough, “I believe in this vaccine because I don’t want to see anyone else die of COVID. Our family has lost too many close friends and relatives to COVID, including an uncle, a beloved church member and our piano teacher.”
NRB leaders gave Darling ultimatum after they said he violated their policy of remaining neutral regarding the COVID-19 vaccine: sign a statement admitting he was insubordinate or be fired. Darling didn’t sign the statement.
In an email sent to Religion News Service, NRB’s CEO Troy Miller praised Darling, saying, “Dan is an excellent communicator and a great friend. I wish him God’s best in all his future endeavors.” While confirming that Darling had been let go, Miller didn’t address whether it was due to his pro-vaccine statements.
Darling responded to his firing in a USA Today article, saying, “While I don’t believe that I violated their policy, I harbor no animosity toward my former employer, who are my brothers and sisters in Christ. It was an honor to serve Christian communicators who work every day to share the Gospel around the world.”
Darling used the article to share how “deeply grieved” he feels regarding the current division within the Christian community.
“We should see those with whom we disagree not as enemies, but as neighbors,” Darling said. “We should not see them as the sum total of their opinion, but as whole people, made in the image of God.”
Darling Returns to the SBC
In 2013, Darling joined Russell Moore at the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). After serving for six years the ERLC’s vice president for communications, Darling accepted a position at the NRB to become their senior vice president of communications in 2019. While Darling was sad to leave what he described as his “incredible and gifted colleagues at ERLC,” Darling said he was “intrigued” by the “opportunity to equip the next generation of Christian communicators” in his new role at the NRB.
Darling will now return to an SBC post as the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s (SBTS) director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement and Texas Baptist College as an assistant professor of faith and culture.
“I’m really enthused by the opportunity to build something here,” Darling said. “I believe in the power of institutions and really want to help create a place where we can discuss culture, politics, policy and shape the next generation. We’ve loved our time in Tennessee and will miss our church and friends, but we are pumped about going to Texas. My wife, two decades removed, is going back home.”
Editor-in-chief of Outreach Magazine Ed Stetzer asked Darling, “You write a lot about civility, and then you got caught up in a very uncivil controversy—which is pretty ironic. What did you learn from that?”
“The whole thing was a surreal experience for me,” Darling said. “From the shock of being let go to the kind of public moment that I didn’t ask for. I learned the value of seeking good advice from trusted friends and of the importance of a community that can help you make wise decisions in the moment when you are not thinking clearly. My goal was to glorify Christ when the spotlight was on me. I want to urge the body of Christ to work toward unity in a divisive age.”
Darling is rejoining the SBC at a tumultuous time for the denomination. Since the SBC’s annual meeting in June, the newly elected SBC president, Ed Litton, has been accused of plagiarizing sermons; a task force has been appointed to investigate it’s Executive Committee’s (EC) alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims; the EC’s president and CEO Ronnie Floyd has resigned along with the EC’s vice president Greg Addison; the SBC’s longtime general counsel severed ties with the denomination, and Russell Moore is being sued by SBC pastor Mike Stone for defamation.
Pointing out that Southern Baptists have really struggled lately, Stetzer asked Darling, “How will a center for ethics make a difference right now in the denomination and evangelicalism?”
“Southern Baptists are wrestling with the same issues that every other evangelical institution or denomination is wrestling with,” Darling said. “And, to be honest, seemingly every other institution in American life is wresting with. We are the biggest, so our debates and fights and scandals make the headlines. We hope the Land Center to be a unifying voice where we can discuss important issues and help the Southern Baptists think through what it means to live out the gospel in a confused and complex age.”
“We are not going to pretend that we have all the answers,” Darling added. “We want to work with other Southern Baptist institutions and other institutions in the broader evangelical movement to help shape our public witness.”
Darling’s friends and well-known leaders Beth Moore, Trillia Newbell, Benjamin Watson, Phillip Bethancourt, and Matthew Boswell, were quick to congratulate him on his new position.